Pair Like a Pro

Stumped over how to build artful landscaping into your outdoor spaces? Here, find three plant combos centered around trees you might already have growing

We’ve all seen it: a lonely tree planted in a front yard amidst a bleak sea of grass. What it needs is companions—plants of varying height, scale, and mass that can be layered in around it, amping up the curb appeal (not to mention your green space’s biodiversity). But achieving such a feat can be a challenge. To lend a hand, we selected a trio of partners for three popular Southern landscape trees. Create these exact combinations, or just tap them for inspiration, but always aim to arrange like plants in groupings of three or five, depending on the size of your space.

Partial Shade(See images above)

A. Japanese maple (Acer palmatum): Available with either red or green leaves, this deciduous tree can grow 10 to 25 feet high.

B. Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’): This herbaceous perennial grass, which tops out at 18 inches tall, adds a pop of chartreuse.